Stephen Colbert hosts an episode of The Late Show in April.
Photo by Scott Kowalchyk/CBS
You will read a lot about the end of The Late Show this week, which will mean not just the end of Stephen Colbert’s 11 years hosting the show but also the end of CBS really trying to do something in late night.
After NBC decided to hand The Tonight Show to Jay Leno in 1993, David Letterman jumped from Late Night (which he originated) to CBS in what was a seismic change to the business at the time. The Late Show came out of the gate hot, and while Tonight eventually reclaimed the lead (to Letterman’s lasting annoyance), CBS had a viable late-night show for the first time ever.
Colbert took over in 2015, and for most of that time, he’s been the most watched late-night show on the air. Jimmy Kimmel Live gets more people under 50, and both Kimmel and Jimmy Fallon’s Tonight Show have much bigger YouTube and social media footprints than The Late Show: It has 10.7 million YouTube subscribers, while Jimmy Kimmel Live has 22 million and The Tonight Show, 34 million. That’s a big gap considering that’s how a lot of us watch late-night TV now.
For all of CBS’ insistence that killing The Late Show was a purely financial decision, I still have an extremely hard time buying that it wasn’t an appeasing move by the previous ownership to ensure that the Paramount-Skydance merger would get federal approval last year. (So in that sense, I guess it was a financial decision.) It’s been fun to watch Colbert in DGAF mode, but he and all the people who work for The Late Show were done dirty.
For the final week of the show, Colbert will have Jon Stewart, Steven Spielberg and David Byrne as guests on Tuesday and Bruce Springsteen on Wednesday. Monday’s show is “The Worst of The Late Show” — which is not a clip show, according to the listings. Colbert and CBS are keeping the lineup for final show on Thursday a secret for now, and there will likely be other unannounced guests during the week too.
I’ll probably have more to say after the final show, but for now I highly recommend my Hollywood Reporter colleague Lacey Rose’s exit interview with Colbert. She’s an excellent interviewer, and he gave what read like real, thoughtful answers.
On to the calendar for the final week of the September-to-May TV season …
Finales
Monday
• 8 and 9 p.m.: FBI and CIA (CBS): The CIA finale is an hour earlier than usual, btw.
Wednesday
• Margo’s Got Money Troubles (Apple TV): Apple renewed the critically acclaimed show starring Elle Fanning, Michelle Pfeiffer, Nick Offerman and Thaddea Graham last week.
• 8 p.m.: Survivor (CBS): The all-star 50th season closes out with a three-hour final episode. Aubry Bracco, Tiffany Ervin, Joe Hunter, Rizo Velovic and Jonathan Young are the last players standing going into the finale.
Thursday
• 8 p.m.: Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage (CBS) and Next Level Chef (Fox)
• 9 p.m.: Ghosts (CBS): Both Georgie & Mandy and Ghosts will have hour-long finales.
• 10 p.m.: Elsbeth (CBS)
• 11:35 p.m.: The Late Show with Stephen Colbert (CBS): The end of a late-night era.
Friday
• 8, 9 and 10 p.m.: Sheriff Country, Fire Country and Boston Blue (CBS)
Sunday
• 8 and 9 p.m.: Marshals and Tracker (CBS): Just about all the finales this week are CBS shows because ABC, Fox and NBC have already mostly closed out their seasons.
Premieres
Monday
• You’re Killing Me (Acorn TV): Brooke Shields plays a best-selling author of murder mysteries who gets caught up in a real-life case. Jessica Fletcher looks over her glasses with bemusement.
Tuesday
• 9 p.m.: In the City (Bravo): From what I gather, this show has some people who used to be on Summer House in it.
Wednesday
• Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed (Apple TV): I’ll let the logline do the talking for this show starring Tatiana Maslany. She plays “a newly divorced mom caught in a dangerous rabbit hole of blackmail, murder and youth soccer.”
• Kylie (Netflix): A three-part documentary about the life and career of Kylie Minogue.
Thursday
• The Boroughs (Netflix): A great cast (Alfred Molina, Alfre Woodard, Geena Davis, Clarke Peters, Bill Pullman and Denis O’Hare) stars in a story about a malevolent entity stalking a retirement community. The Duffer brothers are executive producers; Jeffrey Addiss and Will Matthews (The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance) created the series.
Friday
• Mating Season (Netflix): An R-rated animated series from the people who brought you Big Mouth.
• The Chi (Paramount+): It’s the final season of the Chicago-set drama created by Lena Waithe.
• 9 p.m.: The Yogurt Shop Murders (HBO/HBO Max): A new episode of the true-crime series that premiered last year follows recent developments in the case.
Sunday
• Bad Thoughts (Netflix)
• 11 p.m.: Rick and Morty (Adult Swim)
Sports, specials and movies
(Any movies below that don’t have a network or streamer listed next to them are available for rental or purchase.)
Monday
• 8:30 p.m. ET/5:30 p.m. PT: NBA Western Conference Finals game 1 (NBC/Peacock): The defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder and the San Antonio Spurs tip off what could/should be a kick-ass series.
Tuesday
• Wanda Sykes: Legacy (Netflix): A new stand-up special from one of the best.
• 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT: NBA Eastern Conference Finals game 1 (ESPN): I’m writing this before game 7 of the Pistons-Cavaliers series; the winner plays Knicks in the conference finals. If the Pistons win, the series will begin in Detroit. If the Cavs win, they go to New York to start the series.
Wednesday
• Jack Ryan: Ghost War (Prime Video): John Krasinski (who also co-wrote the script) returns as Ryan in a feature film following on the Prime series that ended in 2023.
• 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT: NHL Western Conference Finals game 1 (ESPN): The top two seeds in the West, the Colorado Avalanch and Las Vegas Golden Knights, drop the puck for a chance to go to the Stanley Cup Finals.
Thursday
• 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT: NHL Eastern Conference finals game 1 (TNT/TruTV): The Carolina Hurricanes host either the Buffalo Sabres or Montreal Canadiens, who play game 7 of their second-round series Monday night.
Friday
• Josh Johnson: Symphony (HBO/HBO Max): The rising comedian and Daily Show correspondent does his first HBO stand-up special.
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